Class A baseball

BANGOR – Junior righthander Matt Kinney has been an artist all season long, painting masterpiece after masterpiece.

He painted another one on Tuesday evening, a one-hitter, and his Bangor High School teammates backed him with an impressive exhibition of clutch hitting as the Rams trimmed Waterville 4-1 for the Eastern Maine Class A baseball title at Mansfield Complex.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Kinney allowed just a bunt single to Dan Nadeau in the sixth inning as the Rams claimed their first Eastern Maine title since 1986. The bunt was an attempted sacrifice that turned into a base hit when Kinney had to double pump while waiting for second baseman Dan Lindsay to cover first.

Kinney struck out 11 and walked five while throwing 73 strikes among his 113 pitches. He improved his record to 9-1 and lowered his earned run average to 0.72 as the only run was unearned.

“I felt pretty good out there,” said Kinney. “I thought I had pretty good stuff. It was a nice night to pitch. It was warm so my arm stayed loose the whole night.”

“He was one of the best pitchers we’ve seen this year,” said Waterville senior righty Daren Meader, who pitched an exceptional game in defeat. “He had a nice fastball and that’s all he had to use against us, basically. His fastball rose and we’re not used to that.”

Just one of the four runs off Meader was earned as the clutch-hitting Rams scored all four with two-out hits.

Meader, who was a questionable starter as late as Monday due to an eye ailment that required medication, allowed only six hits while striking out three and not walking anybody.

Tony Fernandez, Dan Lindsay, Eric Murray and pinch-hitter Chris McGullicuddy got the run-scoring hits that enabled Bangor to earn the right to face Portland in Saturday’s 10 a.m. state A championship game at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

Fernandez gave Bangor the lead for good in the first inning with a booming double over center fielder Scott Robideau’s head. That scored speedster Josh Jamieson, who legged out a two-out infield hit to short as shortstop Alan Hamel’s hurried throw pulled first baseman Lucas Adams off the bag.

“He’s tough. Coach (Dick Whitten) told me to pitch him outside but I brought it in a little bit and he hit it,” said Meader.

“He was starting everybody off with fastballs. I was looking for it,” said Fernandez.

In the second inning, Murray reached on third baseman Chris Labbe’s error, stole second and scored when Lindsay blooped a single into right for only his fifth hit of the season.

“I’ve hit the ball hard but nothing has fallen for me this seaosn. He threw me an inside fastball I thought I could hit. I couldn’t turn on it but I was glad it dropped in. I’m glad I was able to help the team at the plate,” said Lindsay.

Waterville got two on with nobody out in the sixth but Dan Nadeau popped up a bunt and Kinney bore down to strike out Meader and Jason Achorn, the numbers three and four hitters, on high fastballs.

Murray and McGillicuddy gave Kinney some insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth with sharp singles to left and center, respectively. It was McGillicuddy’s second pinch-hit RBI single in as many games.

Bangor is now 17-2 and Waterville finished 13-6.

Rams 4, Panthers 1

Waterville Bangor

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Robideau, cf 3 0 1 0 D. Hamel, lf 3 0 0 0

D. Nadeau, rf 2 0 0 0 McEwen, c 3 0 0 0

Meader, p 3 0 0 0 Jamieson, cf 3 2 1 0

Achorn, c 3 0 0 0 Fernandez, 3b 3 0 2 1

Adams, 1b 3 0 0 0 Kinney, p 3 0 0 0

Salley, dh 2 0 0 0 Murray, 1b 3 2 1 1

a-Rossignol 0 1 0 0 Bowden, rf 2 0 0 0

A. Hamel, ss 0 0 0 0 b-McGillicuddy 1 0 1 1

Carpenter, 2b 3 0 0 0 Babineau, dh 3 0 0 0

Labbe, 3b 2 0 0 0 Pelkey, ss 0 0 0 0

Allen, 3b 0 0 0 0 Lindsay, 2b 2 0 1 1

Browne, lf 2 0 0 0

Totals 23 1 1 0 Totals 26 4 6 4

a-ran for Salley in 7th inning

b-singled for Bowden in 6th inning

Waterville 000 000 1 – 1

Bangor 110 002 x – 4

E – Labbe, A. Hamel, Adams 2; Murray 2B – Fernandez LOB – Waterville 6, Bangor 4 SB – Jamieson, Murray, Robideau, Rossignol

Pitching Summary

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Waterville

Meader (L, 4-4) 6 6 4 1 0 3

Bangor

Kinney (W, 9-1) 7 1 1 0 5 11

BK – Meader TIME -2:04